“Reasons for the Faith, aka Apologetics”

SCOTUS to the 9th Circuit – Read Our Lips!

Religious Gatherings Require Equal Protection, Part Two.

The Supreme Court on February 26, 2021 ordered the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to grant a petition ordering Santa Clara County, California to lift its ban on indoor church services.

In Gateway City Church, et., al, v Newsom, https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/022621zr_1bo2.pdf the Court stated that “This outcome is clearly dictated” by its earlier ruling in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom.

South Bay United Pentecostal is the case in which the Court lifted California’s unconstitutional ban on indoor religious services.

Strict Scrutiny of Government Restrictions.

The county argued that its ban was allowed because it did not single out religious gatherings.

The 6-3 SCOTUS majority appears unimpressed by the County’s argument that it can completely deprive worshippers of their Free Exercise rights as long as they are treating other establishments equally badly.

Government restrictions on our fundamental Constitutional rights such as freedom of speech and free exercise of religion must be in furtherance of a compelling state interest and must use the least restrictive means necessary. That is what is called Strict Scrutiny test.

The county might have achieved a passing grade on the first part of the test, but they clearly flunked the second part.

Conclusion.

I’ll continue to keep you posted as the Supreme Court finishes out the second half of its 2020 – 2021 docket.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Apologists Help Us Process Ravi Zacharias’ Betrayal

Ravi Zacharias’ Double Life.

Ravi Zacharias was a gifted speaker and Apologist. He used those gifts to build Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (“RZIM”) into a large platform for Apologetics writers and speakers.

The world recently learned that he was also sexual predator who led a double life. RZIM’s Board of Directors commissioned an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation into some disturbing allegations about him. The Board publicly released the report, whose conclusions were even worse than the accusations would lead one to believe.

Apologetics Instructors Who Can Help Us Think Through the Damage.

Frank Turek, podcaster and author of the book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, provides a good role model for how to respond to accusations against any public figure. He resisted the demand to give an off-the-cuff response when the accusations first surfaced and waited until there were enough facts from which to make reasonable conclusions.

Please listen to his analysis of the evidence on his 2/19/21 45-minute podcast: https://crossexamined.org/the-ravi-zacharias-scandal-and-the-truth-of-christianity/

Pastor Mike Winger of www.biblethinker.org live-streamed about this on his YouTube channel on 2/15/21. Mike is a pastor and a certified domestic violence counselor, which makes him uniquely qualified to help us understand how to evaluate the credibility of the anonymous witnesses to Ravi’s conduct. It is 90 minutes and well worth your time.

It is titled What Ravi did and Where we go From Here.

Other Apologists who have recorded helpful conversations about it are Alisa Childers of the Alisa Childers podcast https://www.alisachilders.com/ and Cameron Bertucci of the Capturing Christianity podcast https://capturingchristianity.com/

Conclusion.

I provided these links to help anyone who might doubt the truth of Christianity because of Ravi Zacharias’ betrayal.

Christianity is true, regardless of the flawed, broken sinners who don’t adhere to the words of Jesus’ that they taught.

Two plus two equals four, regardless of how flawed a math teacher might be.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Religious Gatherings Require Equal Protection

Governments Can’t Use Emergencies as an Excuse to Discriminate Against Religion.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, in Alice Chao’s blog post on 2/15/21, said this:

https://www.adflegal.org/blog/what-justice-gorsuch-had-say-about-californias-covid-ban-indoor-church-services

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court released a decision lifting California’s unconstitutional ban on indoor religious services.

The Court voted 6-3 in favor of two California churches challenging Governor Gavin Newsom’s complete ban of indoor worship services while the government continues to grapple with handling COVID-19.

Justice Neil Gorsuch had strong words for California officials who violated the First Amendment.

“Even in times of crisis—perhaps especially in times of crisis—we have a duty to hold governments to the Constitution,” wrote Justice Gorsuch in his concurrence, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Gorsuch continued, observing: “As this crisis enters its second year—and hovers over a second Lent, a second Passover, and a second Ramadan—it is too late for the State to defend extreme measures with claims of temporary exigency, if it ever could.”

SCOTUS Seems to be Warming to the Task.

The Supreme Court of the United States, known colloquially as SCOTUS, is finally forcing state governments to protect our God-given rights to life, liberty, and property.

Their pre-Thanksgiving case prohibited NY Governor Cuomo from enforcing Covid restrictions that treated houses of worship less favorably than secular establishments. Please see my 1/5/21 blog post for more details.

I’ve read about federal district court cases in which judges have reminded governors that these rights are held by each individual. The rulings require the government to show that each person is entitled to keep his or her liberties unless the government can show they have probable cause to believe that person poses a serious threat.

Governors and other public officials have declared entire categories of human beings to be a threat to the public health without having to make the legally-required probable cause showings.

I would be thrilled if SCOTUS used one of those cases to strike down the lockdowns and take us back to the good old days of 2019 where we were presumed innocent, not the other way around.

Conclusion.

I’ll keep you posted as the Supreme Court finishes out the second half of its 2020 – 2021 docket.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Do You Know MLK’s Biblical Basis for his Civil Disobedience?

MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” Makes a Powerful Biblical Case for Disobeying an Unjust Law.

Monday, January 18, 2021, was our country’s annual celebration of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Gospel Coalition published an annotated version (by Justin Taylor) of his heart-rending Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

You can read Justin’s post here: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/an-annotated-guide-to-martin-luther-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail/

MLK was a Christian First.

Martin Luther King Jr. was above all things a Christian. People who are hostile to Gospel are quick to call him “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” but go to great lengths to omit his title of Reverend. Nevertheless, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was instrumental in the success of the Civil Rights movement in this country.

This success was all made possible, in my opinion, because they were not at all confused about the source of their claim to justice.

The Religious Reason for MLK’s Actions.

Below are the 8^th and 9^th paragraphs of the letter, along with the annotation shown in bold italics (emphasis in the original article):

“[Religious reason]

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.

Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.”

Conclusion.

I am keeping this post brief so you can more quickly go read the (very long!) annotated Letter.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Theological Liberalism – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Apologists are Sounding the Alarm About Theological Liberalism.

Neil Shenvi and Alisa Childers are two of the Apologists I follow.

Neil’s website proclaims:

“Christian apologetics from a homeschooling theoretical chemist.”

https://shenviapologetics.com/

Alisa’s website says this about her:

A lifelong church-goer, follower of Jesus, and former CCM recording artist with the Dove award-winning group ZOEgirl, I experienced a period of profound doubt about my faith in my mid-thirties. … I began to investigate my faith intellectually—I took seminary classes and read everything I could get my hands on. This began my journey from unreasoned doubt into a vibrant, rational, and informed faith.

https://www.alisachilders.com/

The Danger of Theological Liberalism.

“I’m increasingly convinced that the most pressing apologetics need is not equipping Christians to defend the truth of Christianity, but protecting Christians against the advance of theological liberalism.”

Neil Shenvi, posted on Twitter 12/30/2020.

What is Theological Liberalism?

Theological Liberalism, also known as Progressive Christianity, is:

“… a growing movement in the church that seeks to re-interpret the Bible, re-assess historic doctrines, and re-define core tenets of the faith. All the while, this movement identifies itself as “Christian,” claims to follow Jesus, and boasts a high view of Scripture. But as we’ll see in this series, they are leading many unsuspecting Christians astray, and confusing the body of Christ about what the Bible is, what Jesus accomplished on the cross, and what the good news of the gospel proclaims.”

Alisa Childers, 10/8/2020

https://www.alisachilders.com/blog/progressive-christianity-101-what-you-need-to-know

Conclusion – Sort of.

This is the first of what may be multiple posts on the topic of Theological Liberalism, as I follow where the Holy Spirit leads me.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

The ACLU Sides with the ADF in a Religious Liberty Case – Yes, Really!

A Broad Spectrum of Civil Rights Groups Linked Arms in a Recent Supreme Court Case.

Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski is a religious liberty case. It involves two college students who were deprived by a public college of their rights to share the Gospel while on campus.

The case has made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court (“SCOTUS”). I listened to the 1/12/21 live audio of the oral argument.

I also took the opportunity to listen in on “pre-game” and “post-game” analysis provided by attorneys with the Alliance Defending Freedom (“ADF”) and that included their clients, the two students.

The lead attorney for ADF stated that, to the best of her knowledge, this is the first time that the ADF and the American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) were ever on the same side in a First Amendment case. Please see the Conclusion for the reasons driving this unusual alignment.

Places of Learning Are Often Ill-Informed About Their First Amendment Duties.

The ADF represented Chike Uzuegbunam and Joseph Bradford, two students attending Georgia Gwinnett College (“GGC”). The students shared similar religious beliefs and a desire to express those beliefs publicly.

Campus officials actively prevented Chike from using the campus’ “free speech zone” to share the Gospel, even though he was complying with campus speech procedures, because someone was offended by his words.

Joseph saw how Chike was treated, and chose to keep silent out of fear of similar mistreatment. This is the classic description of government action that had a chilling effect on one’s constitutional rights.

Public schools and colleges generally have a duty to remain neutral between students who hold different viewpoints. They aren’t permitted to favor a Christian’s viewpoint over an Atheist’s viewpoint (or vice-versa) on the same subject.

Sadly, the experience of ADF attorneys across the nation shows that approximately 90% of colleges have unconstitutional “speech codes” that are invariably used to discriminate against the religious point of view.

Why is This Case at SCOTUS?

Chike and Joseph approached the ADF for help recovering their rights. An ADF attorney sent a letter to GGC informing them of the ways in which the speech code violated the constitution, and offering to help GGC rewrite it. GGC rebuffed these attempts, leading ADF to file a First Amendment case in a Federal District Court in Georgia. After lengthy delays, GGC finally changed its speech code. GGC then filed a motion to dismiss the case, claiming that there was no longer any harm being done to the students.

Over ADF’s objections, the court dismissed the case. ADF filed an appeal with the 11^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the dismissal.

According to ADF, the case should not have been dismissed in light of centuries of precedent that permit aggrieved persons to prove the deprivation of their rights and to recover attorneys’ fees from the government.

Conclusion – Why This Matters.

If the SCOTUS upholds the 11^th Circuit’s dismissal of the case, it will allow colleges to violate a student’s fundamental rights with impunity, simply by (as GGC did) giving in at the last minute and changing a policy that it should be willing to change as soon as it learns of the policy’s problems.

This case allied groups across the political spectrum who regularly seek to vindicate an individual’s rights against the government. The ACLU often sues over police misconduct. The ADF often sues over misconduct by schools, public libraries, and park districts.

What they have in common is helping the weak take on the strong.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Religious Liberty is Protected from Arbitrary Government Action

Apologetics and the U.S. Constitution.

I’m feeling called to make Apologetics and the U.S. Constitution the theme of this blog for 2021.

I am still compiling a list of topics to cover, such as: Parental Rights to Direct a Child’s Upbringing, and Freedom from Compelled Speech.

Please send suggestions to me at michael@msochartered.com

Religious Liberty – Protected from Arbitrary Governmental Actions.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects several of our God-given rights, including the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, peaceable assembly, and freedom to petition government.

A recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court spells out the government’s duty to interfere as little as necessary with our rights.

Happy Thanksgiving from the U.S. Supreme Court to People of Faith!

Shortly before Thanksgiving, the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited NY Governor Cuomo from enforcing Covid restrictions that treated houses of worship less favorably than secular establishments. In Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, The Court took issue with Governor Cuomo’s arbitrary and frequently-changing definitions of what constituted “essential” work. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/20a87_4g15.pdf

Here are excerpts from the opinion:

The applicants have made a strong showing that the challenged restrictions violate “the minimum requirement of neutrality” to religion. The regulations cannot be viewed as neutral because they single out houses of worship for especially harsh treatment.

In a red zone, while a synagogue or church may not admit more than 10 persons, businesses categorized as “essential” may admit as many people as they wish. And the list of “essential” businesses includes things such as acupuncture facilities, camp grounds, garages, as well as many whose services are not limited to those that can be regarded as essential, such as all plants manufacturing chemicals and microelectronics and all transportation facilities.

These categorizations lead to troubling results. At the hearing in the District Court, a health department official testified about a large store in Brooklyn that could “literally have hundreds of people shopping there on any given day.”

Yet a nearby church or synagogue would be prohibited from allowing more than 10 or 25 people inside for a worship service. And the Governor has stated that factories and schools have contributed to the spread of COVID–19 but they are treated less harshly than the Diocese’s churches and Agudath Israel’s synagogues, which have admirable safety records.

Because the challenged restrictions are not “neutral” and of “general applicability,” they must satisfy “strict scrutiny,” and this means that they must be “narrowly tailored” to serve a “compelling” state interest.

Stemming the spread of COVID–19 is unquestionably a compelling interest, but it is hard to see how the challenged regulations can be regarded as “narrowly tailored.” They are far more restrictive than any COVID–related regulations that have previously come before the Court, much tighter than those adopted by many other jurisdictions hard-hit by the pandemic, and far more severe than has been shown to be required to prevent the spread of the virus at the applicants’ services.

Not only is there no evidence that the applicants have contributed to the spread of COVID–19 but there are many other less restrictive rules that could be adopted to minimize the risk to those attending religious services. Among other things, the maximum attendance at a religious service could be tied to the size of the church or synagogue.

It is hard to believe that admitting more than 10 people to a 1,000–seat church or 400–seat synagogue would create a more serious health risk than the many other activities that the State allows.

Conclusion.

It is great to see the Supreme Court get off the Covid sidelines and start protecting houses of worship!

Please send me your suggested topics for the Apologetics and the U.S. Constitution series.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Parents – Here is Help for you to Push Back on School Indoctrination!

Parents and Students Retain Their Constitutional Rights in the Public Schools.

The U.S. Constitution spells out the agreement between the people of the United States to form a limited federal government. The specific purposes of the government are spelled out in the Constitution. Anything not specified in the Constitution is reserved to the people and to the states that ratified it.

The first ten amendments to the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights. Those amendments spell out fundamental rights (free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, peaceable assembly, etc.) of the people that government is supposed to protect.

Parents and students retain those rights when they participate in the public schools.

New Resource Guide by Focus on the Family Helps Parents Combat the Liberal Agenda in Schools.

I was fortunate to attend public schools in San Jose when they taught those lessons in Civics class and honored their duty to protect our Constitutional rights.

Sadly, many public schools today are failing in that vital duty. That is why Focus on the Family has produced a resource guide for parents of public-school students.

The Christian Post on 12/16/2020 published an article titled: Focus on the Family releases resource guide to help parents ‘push back’ against liberal indoctrination in schools.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/resource-guide-helps-parents-combat-liberal-agenda-at-schools.html

From the article:

“The socially conservative group Focus on the Family has released a new resource guide to help parents make informed decisions about their children’s education.

Back to School–for Parents, compiled by Focus on the Family and its partner organization Family Policy Alliance, was released Wednesday and is available to download for free. Its goal is to serve as a “busy parent’s guide to what’s happening in your children’s classrooms and practical steps you can take to protect them.”

The guide features information on what children across the United States are learning in school, including “comprehensive sex education” and mandated instruction on LGBT history. It also touches upon efforts to allow trans-identified students to enter bathrooms, locker rooms and showers designated for the opposite sex, in addition to allowing biological males who identify as females to compete in girls’ sports.

Conclusion.

I am a volunteer with two nonprofit organizations that help parents and students protect their God-given rights.

The Alliance Defending Freedom and the Pacific Justice institute each provide pro bono legal services. I encourage anyone whose Constitutional rights are being violated by the government to contact them directly.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

How to Build a More Discerning, Less Naïve, and Better Culturally Engaged Church

Natasha Crain, an Excellent Resource for the Kingdom.

I have featured author and apologetics instructor Natasha Crain in two of my previous posts: Equipping the Next Generation and Equipping the Next Generation, Update.

Natasha recently wrote an article titled How to Build a More Discerning, Less Naïve, and Better Culturally Engaged Church. I encourage everyone who is concerned about the hostile culture to read and heed her guidance.

http://christianmomthoughts.com/how-to-build-a-more-discerning-less-naive-and-better-culturally-engaged-church/

Awakening the Church to the Need for Cultural Engagement.

Natasha is a former Marketing executive. She draws on that expertise in her timely article. The following paragraphs are the second and third in the article:

“Let me start by saying that the title of this article is a rather sweeping proposition. Obviously, this is a single article, the issues are complex, and I’m not claiming that what I write here is a complete answer to all the problems we have. But I want to offer what I see as some key levers needed to drive change in how Christians engage with today’s culture.” (emphasis added)

“In my years as a marketing executive, I came to deeply appreciate one particular model that people in the marketing field have used for over one hundred years (in various shapes and forms). It’s a simple funnel that describes the psychological stages people go through before committing to an action:” Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. (this is the funnel graphic summarized.)

“If we want to move more Christians to the bottom of the funnel—the action point of being more discerning, less naïve, and better culturally engaged—here are the key levers I see at the awareness, interest, and desire points leading there.”

Grow awareness of worldview differences by addressing biblical illiteracy.

“If a person doesn’t realize that their understanding of the Bible lacks appropriate context and depth, they end up navigating the stormy cultural waters in whatever way happens to make sense to them based on what they think the Bible says. Ironically, without an accurate biblical anchor, their Christian views get completely watered down by the cultural waves…and discernment no longer functions effectively. They’re less able to engage effectively with culture because they aren’t even fully aware of how a biblical and secular worldview really differ.”

Grow interest in cultural engagement by addressing (lack of) conviction.

“Even if a person gains a better understanding of what the Bible says on relevant cultural topics (the awareness I just addressed), it doesn’t mean they’ll be interested enough to become culturally engaged. There could be many reasons for that, but there’s one that’s especially problematic: a lack of conviction that Christianity is objectively (and exclusively) true.”

Grow desire for engagement by destigmatizing the relationship between politics and religion.

“Let’s now say that we have a person who is aware of what the Bible says on today’s hot topics and they’re interested in engaging culture because they’re convicted that the Bible offers the one true picture of reality.

That doesn’t mean they’ll actually do something.

Marketers are well aware that awareness and interest do not always lead to a strong desire to do something because there’s often some kind of barrier. There are a lot of barriers I could list here with respect to cultural engagement, but a major one I’ve seen is the prevailing stigma about mixing politics and religion.”

Action Requests

Please go read the whole article, pick one of her suggested actions from the end of the article, and

Send me an email letting me know what you intend to do. I will create a prayer list specifically for these actions.

Thank you, and God bless you.

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Please Consider Homeschool or Charter School

I believe the government’s near-monopoly on K-12 education (and the corresponding indoctrination in the religion of atheism) is a major cause of the ungodly behavior we are seeing all across the USA.

Dinesh D’Souza’s recent article explains in great detail how the schools and universities were systematically turned into indoctrination centers. https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-philosopher-of-antifa_3380743.html

If we want to help restore civility to our streets, we need to break the government stranglehold on our children’s education.

Please consider homeschooling or sending your kids to a charter school.

Homeschooling.

I have written two posts on the subject of homeschooling.

In my 4/21/20 post titled Homeschool Your Kids? The Left Wants to Stop You, I sounded the alarm about efforts to strip parents of their God-given rights to direct their children’s education.

In my 4/28/20 post, Looking for Homeschooling Resources? Here Are Some, I shared some resources from people I trust to help parents find material that will help them educate their children in ways that honor God.

Many of you homeschooled your kids to some extent after schools were closed last Spring. It is no longer a great mystery to you. Please help other parents by sharing your success stories as well as the things you will do differently going forward.

Charter Schools.

If homeschooling is a bridge too far for you, please consider sending your kids to a charter school.

Providentially (from my viewpoint), Thomas Sowell has just released a book in defense of charter schools It is titled “Charter Schools and Their Enemies”.

Here’s a link to his 6/27/20 opinion piece in the New York Post, Charter Schools are the Best Way to Wipe out Educational Disparity: https://nypost.com/2020/06/27/charter-schools-are-the-best-way-to-wipe-out-educational-disparity/

Here are excerpts from the article:

Depending on who you read or listen to, charter schools are either a striking success or a “failed and damaging experiment” — or even just “fads.”

Such conflicting opinions have led to bitter controversies that have raged for years. But my new book, “Charter Schools and Their Enemies,” features hard facts about educational outcomes in more than a hundred individually identified New York City schools.

No wonder most critics of charter schools, and defenders of traditional public schools, want to argue on the basis of rhetoric.

They don’t want to argue on the basis of facts about test results.

One common example of misleading rhetoric is an often-repeated statement that — nationwide — charter schools “as a whole” do not perform any better than traditional public schools “as a whole.”

Please read his article.

Conclusions.

Please protect your children, and help others protect their children.

Please homeschool.

Please choose a charter school instead of the local public school.

Please also consider donating money to charter schools that serve the poor. You will help others rescue their kids from those public schools that are often low-performing as well as indoctrination centers.

Thank you!

Michael Oswald

michael@msochartered.com

www.msochartered.com

Michael Oswald is a follower of Jesus who lives in Boise, Idaho. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this article are his own.